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The Law Of The Sea In The Strait Of Hormuz: Contending Legal Regimes At The Cusp Of Conflict, James Kraska

James Kraska

This article resolves long-standing confusion over the legal regime that applies to passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and the United States profoundly disagree about the applicable international law in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow stretch of water through which travels 17 million barrels of oil per day—20 percent of the world total. The strait connects the Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf, and is ground zero in the clash between the two states. Each year 12,000 vessels, half of them oil tankers greater than 150,000 gross tons, converge in dense traffic patterns in Iranian territorial seas en …